Strawberry allergies

I found out a friend of Dale's experiences the same thing I do when eating Strawberries.  His mouth gets sore.  So I once again went off in search of information.  I read a few articles, and was led to a substance called Bromelain.  It exists in Pineapple especially, and is a type of "protease" enzyme which breaks down protein.  Kiwi has one such substance as well, known as actinidin.  Figs have ficin.

Interestingly enough, Actinidin is also present in pineapples, mangoes and papayas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromelain#Other_plant_proteases

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actinidin

I am falling asleep in the middle of this research and don't want to lose research, so here is so far such search of re.

Everything I learned...

... I learned at work. Okay, well, not everything. But I had to
clean up starware off someone's machine and finally decided to look
into HijackThis. Unnecessary for what I was doing as it turned out,
but what I realized is that I was completely, utterly stupid for
seeing that program all over the internet and never utilizing it
myself. What a nifty little critter!! I didn't realize it was a
standalone!!!!!

Anywho, the reason I ended up finally downloading it is because I was
researching starware and how to get rid of it. I had no trouble,
thankfully, but I was prepared for the worst prior to attack. And
HijackThis was mentioned.

Here's a neat link, one with a list of spyware/adware/etc resources
that I found to be pretty comprehensive. I've used many of these
tools and am glad to find more. Now that I've given up my side work
for the most part, of course I find this. LOL

http://www.pchell.com/support/spywaretools.shtml

~nv

Dell ROCKS!!

I had to call Dell earlier because I needed a restore CD.  I expected to pay for it and was pleasantly surprised:  The computer is out of warranty by three months, but they're sending me a free XP reinstall disc today.  It should be here tomorrow or monday.  In addition, the pleasant ENGLISH-SPEAKING-DUDE very quickly pointed me to the proper drivers location and even told me the proper order to ensure everything installed happily.

I am proud to wear my Dell cap.  Not sure where folks are having trouble with them, but I've only had good experiences in the past several months both at work and otherwise.  YAY!!

~nv

Cross pictures 2

From a bit farther back...

Cross pictures

Okay, so the pics did not come out very well. Here's one group at a
time...

The Cross Pendant

I'm seeking age and origin of the following.  If anyone has any ideas or information, I'd appreciate it.

The pendant is over 40 years old but exact age is unknown.

It looks like it was "carved" from a grayish metal.

There's a sort of filigree around the center object which is a cross or sword.

The edges have little "balls" - 6 on each side, one at bottom.  They appear to have been hammered and/or filed.

The whole piece seems to be from one piece of metal and is bent outward from the front a bit.  I.e., the front curves outward slightly so when you set it down on a flat surface, the right and left sides hover over the surface.

FRONT:

The "cross" looks like a sword; on the handle, the left and right globes have a design in them like a four-petal flower, north, south, east west (common amongst many cultures).

At the bottom of the cross/sword is an ovalish thing with what appears to be writing.  I cannot make it out, the closest I can come is "SKKz" but the z part is more like a christmas tree if you ask me.  For all I know it may not even be Roman letters.

BACK:

There is a stamp of "800" on the backside in clear tiny lettering.

Same design on sword's handle as on the front.

Bottom of sword has something, not sure what, could be more writing.  UTRD maybe?

Flatter than the front, but equally designed

CHAIN:

The chain may not be original to the pendant, although it appears to be made of similar metal.  Its links are soldered so you can barely tell that they're not all one piece.  There are two "normal" links in between larger, more complex ones.  The complex ones have an "x" piece hugging the middle of larger links; there's a slightly heavier circle hugging the middle of the x formation.

Pictures below.  Click for larger version.

First harvest

Okay, so I picked a spinach leaf the other day, but THIS is the first
REAL harvest. I just made me a salad with spinach, green onion, and
cilantro all from my very own dirt. Quite delish. Now I want
dessert... *thinking about the frozen blueberries in freezer* NOM
NOM NOM

Whups, silly me vs printer

Okay, so I just did a really big dumb.

I went to print an invoice from my iMac to my HP C3180 and it kept
telling me the job was stopped. I'm like, HUH?? Printer turned on,
plugged in, USB plugged into... oh yeah, second monitor. Second
monitor not turned on. Heh.

Without power, the monitor will absolutely refuse to send along USB
signals to any connected peripherals.

So, I pressed the power button on the monitor, and whammo, the
printer eats up a page and spits it out. Ptu.

~w

Garden Pests

Leaf hoppers mostly.  I've been picking them off individually each day for the past three days.  They've decided my potato plants are tasty.  The potato plants are still doing well despite the minor infestation, however, and I see little yellow eggs on the underside of some of the leaves which I /think/ are lady bug eggs.  I'm keeping an eye on them to see if I'm right.  If they are, that's a good thing for those plants.  If not, I may need to eradicate them depending on what they are.

The spinach is doing awesome things.  It's sparse in its insect plagues, a healthy green colour, and getting bushier and fuller every day.

The tomato plants are riddled with holes, hardly growing if at all, and overall I just don't see them making it.  Carrots finally look like they have true "tops" albeit teensy ones.  Peppers finally sprouted but are not looking healthy enough for me to be excited.  And the green onions are kinda washed out looking.  They don't look happy, but are still growing.  I wonder if their section had too much lime?  Possible, as that's the corner the big pile was in.  Maybe a little manure this fall will help the soil for next year's crops.

Inside, I've got a couple surviving sprigs of coriander that are very nice, growing tall and strong.  I planted one of my last tomato seedlings in with them along with the sweet marjoram seedlings.  Then I put the basil and the remaining green onion seedling in with the inside green onions, which are thickening some and looking like they need a trim.  A third box is going to get started for the remainder of the tomato seedlings.  I can't imagine that they'll survive and produce inside, but even if they just grow bigger, they'll look nicer than the poor little things outside.

The Orange Mint is still in its pot.  I need to get it transplanted but worry I'll kill it.  LOL

Oh!  And I saw a mottled tortoise beetle on a potato plant the other day but didn't manage to get a good photo of it over the two days it was there.  I went out later to work on that, but it had disappeared.  The one photo I do have is just clear enough for me to have found out what it was online.  Oh, well.  I want to know when I can start eating the spinach!!

~w

Snake!!

A garter snake, to be exact, so called because it resembles the
garters that women once wore to hold up stockings.

I saw it yesterday, in fact, when I went to water the flowers on the
front steps. It moved quickly, sniffing the air intently with its
tongue. I marveled for a moment and then heard Dale at the side of
the house. I called to him to come see, and the snake stayed put
nicely. Wanting a picture, I went inside to grab the camera. When I
took aim, however, the little fella slithered away under the porch.

There'd been something bothering me about his eyes, though. I knew
it was a garter but began thinking maybe I was wrong; the eyes shone
bluish in the light which threw me. So a short while ago I began
looking online for garters to see if my memory could pick out the
snake again. It had seemed to me that the stripes were duller than
the pictures I saw online. And, the eyes were so bright compared to
what I'd seen. Then I saw a picture of an eastern ribbon snake and
thought, maybe it was one of those? But I couldn't find pictures of
the bluish eyes.

That's when I realized: The snake must have been molting. Their
eyes look like they've got cataracts when they're about to lose their
skin. I confirmed this online and then thought, "Gee, but /was/ it a
garter? Eastern ribbons are rare in this area, but they have been
sighted! Man, I wish I had a picture of that little guy!!" I
compared photo after photo of them online, and was fairly certain it
was a garter, but ... if it WAS a Ribbon, I certainly wanted to
report it. Did it have the white spot in front of its eye? Or did
it have the blackish lines on its mouth? My memory was too foggy
with the photos dancing across my retinas. There was no way I'd ever
know without seeing him again.

Burning curiosity and scientific excitement got the best of me. I
figured that if he'd been under our porch once, it was feasible he
could be living under there - assuming he hadn't stopped in our
flowerbed for a little basking action or somesuch and had slithered
off when he felt the prying eyes in my head had left. So, I ventured
out onto the porch and glanced down at the spot I'd last seen him -
and almost shit my pants. There he was!! His tongue wasn't out, so
I tiptoed back inside and snatched the camera. His eyes had cleared
since yesterday and he seemed a bit brighter than I remembered. He
must have molted already, and was now basking in the sun as I'd
thought, the shelter of the dark porch his security against intruders
- such as photographers. Well, he stayed put this time, and never
seemed the wiser. I think they sleep with their eyes open, so maybe
I was quiet enough not to wake him. At any rate, I got him!!

And as I was just writing this, I saw the mail person come up the
steps and deliver our mail. I ran out after she was gone and he's /
still/ there, in the same position. Feeling pretty comfy over there,
apparently. Then again, I was all over that porch yesterday and
never would have seen him had he not objected to being sprayed with a
bit o' water from the can. (Sorry, Mr. Snake.) (Assuming it's a Mr.)

~w